Category Archives: Philippines (Philippine Airlines)

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has announced from the International Paris Air Show, that it has signed an agreement with Philippine Airlines, Inc. for the exercise of its seven Q400 aircraft purchase rights. This latest rights exercise brings Philippine Airlines’ total firm order to twelve Q400 aircraft. The original order for five firm Q400 with purchase rights for an additional seven was previously announced on December 8, 2016.

The flag carrier of the Philippines is expected to take delivery of the world’s first dual-class, 86-seat Q400 aircraft in July 2017.

Including this latest order, Bombardier has now recorded a total of 585 Q400 aircraft on firm order.

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has announced Philippine Airlines, Inc., the flag carrier of the Philippines, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire up to 12 Q400 aircraft.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered in Manila, PAL celebrates its 75th anniversary this year as the first commercial airline in Asia still in operation today. Operating out of its hubs at Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Manila and Mactan-Cebu International Airport of Cebu, Philippine Airlines serves 31 destinations in the Philippines and over 40 destinations in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania, North America and Europe.

Philippines (Philippine Airlines) (Manila) on March 15, 2016, will launch three weekly flights from Cebu, the capital city of Cebu Province in the Philippines, and Los Angeles. The new service will be operated with Airbus A340-300s per Airline Route.

Philippine Airlines (Philippines) (Manila) has announced it will launch a new route to Auckland, New Zealand via Cairns starting on December 1. The carrier will use Airbus A320s on the new route.

Here is the full statement:

As part of the expansion of its network in the Oceania region, flag carrier Philippine Airlines will launch flights from Manila to Cairns, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand beginning on December 1 this year.

The six-hour flight to Cairns – PAL’s fifth Australian destination – departs Manila at 11:45 PM (2345) (MNL time) arriving in Australia at 08:00 AM (0800) (local time) the following day. The one-hour stopover allows PAL to pick up passengers from Cairns for the continuing journey to Auckland. Arrival in New Zealand is at 4:00 PM (1600) (local time).

Flights from Auckland depart on the same days at 6:30 PM (1830) (local time), arriving Cairns at 10:30 PM (2230) (local time). After a brief stopover, flights depart from Cairns, arriving Manila at 3:30 AM (0330) (MNL time), the following day.

Prior to launching flights to these two destinations, PAL opened services to New York, USA on March 15 and to Jinjiang in Quangzhou, China on April 25.

Philippine Airlines (Philippines) (Manila) as planned, departed from Manila yesterday (March 15) for its return to New York. The airline restored regular service to New York after an absence of 17 years. The Airbus A340-300 (above) will operate four days a week via Vancouver.

Philippine Airlines Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Dr. Lucio C. Tan presented a Boeing 777 model aircraft to US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg during the March 15, 2015 send-off ceremony of the airline’s inaugural flight to New York.

Photo Below: Philippine Airlines. PAL Chairman and CEO Dr. Lucio Tan and PAL President and COO Jaime Bautista with US Ambassador to the Philippines Phillip Goldberg makes PAL’s New York official with the traditional ribbon cutting in Manila on the departure.

Photo Below: Philippine Airlines. The flight crew for the historic return to New York poses with CEO Dr. Lucio C. Tan.

WestJet (Calgary) has announced it has entered into a code-share agreement with Philippine Airlines (Philippines) (PAL) (Manila), allowing the carrier to begin marketing and selling WestJet-operated flights. The two carriers are building on an existing interline agreement that has been in place since May 2013.

Code-share designations will be available on select WestJet flights from Vancouver and Toronto, and all code-share sales are offered directly through Philippine Airlines or through their global distribution network.

Philippines-Philippine Airlines (Manila) is coming back to New York. The carrier will operate an Airbus A340-300 four days a week from Manila to New York via Vancouver starting on March 15, 2015.

The carrier previously operated the same route (except via Newark) with McDonnell Douglas MD-11s until it was stopped in August of 1997.

The airline issued this statement:

Philippine Airlines is flying to the Big Apple, New York City, on March 15, 2015, marking the carrier’s much-awaited network expansion to the US east coast.

In announcing the New York service, PAL Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Lucio C. Tan said, “This auspicious start of regular flights to New York will coincide with PAL’s 74th anniversary.”

The four-times-a-week service – Manila-Vancouver-New York – will operate at Terminal 1 of New York’s JFK International Airport. PAL will have full traffic rights between Vancouver and New York.

The addition of New York will bring to five the total US destinations, following Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam.

The flight to New York – distance of 14,501 kilometers or approximately 16.5 total flying hours – will be PAL’s longest route.

Flight PR 126 departs Manila every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 11:50 p.m. Arrival in Vancouver is 8:50 p.m. on the same day. After a two-hour transit stop, the service continues on to New York at 10:50 p.m., touching down at Terminal 1 of JFK International at 7:00 a.m. the following day.

The return service, PR 127, departs New York at 11:00 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, arriving in Vancouver at 1:50 p.m. It departs the Canadian city at 3:20 p.m. and lands back in Manila at 8:35 p.m. the following day.

PAL will utilize the Airbus A340-300 jets, which seats 36 passengers in business class and 218 in economy.

On board, passengers can expect to be pampered with PAL’s signature “at home” in-flight service, which features business class seats that convert to full-flat beds; in-flight entertainment system such as audio-video on demand in business, and gourmet cuisine designed by top international guest chefs.

The New York service will have the added benefit of boosting PAL’s Canadian operation. From March 15, 2015, the current daily service between Manila and Vancouver will spike to 11 flights weekly with three departure times from Manila – mid-afternoon, early evening and late evening – providing wider schedule choices to passengers.

Manila-Toronto will add a fourth weekly frequency, increasing capacity on this long-haul route in time for the peak summer travel period out of Manila.

PAL’s return has been keenly anticipated by the huge Filipino-American communities along the U.S. eastern seaboard ever since the flag carrier pulled out of the region in 1997. About half a million ethnic Filipinos reside on the East Coast, with over 253,000 in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, 90,000 in Virginia, 75,000 in Washington, D.C. and environs, and 31,000 in the Philadelphia metro area. Overall, Filipinos on the East Coast account for 15% of the estimated 3.4-million-strong Filipino population in the U.S., comprising a natural base market for PAL.

Delta operates a one stop flight between the two cities with a stop at Tokyo (Narita).